Dispelling truths about our favorite dynasty

Anthony Brophy in the role of the Savoyard, Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys in “The Tudors”.

On 21 January 1556, Eustace Chapuys died at Louvain. Leaving no immediate heirs (his illegitimate son died in 1549) he left everything to his nieces and nephews. Before he died, he bought many properties in his home-town, Annency, which he supervised for the construction of new colleges and a grammar school for the under-privilege boys. He also constructed another college in Louvain (that was also aimed towards the under-privilege youth of that town).

Although the Savoyard was no longer the Imperial Ambassador, he still counseled the Emperor and his successor (Van der Defelt) in important matters of state, and still saw to Mary’s welfare. In 1547, after the death of King Henry, he counseled them on how to approach the new Protectorate (which had been established for the young King, under the leadership of Edward Seymour) with the intended betrothal between the Lady Mary and Dom Luis of Portugal. Although this betrothal never came to be, Eustace was its ardent defender and he often gave Defelt advice on other matters.

In fiction as in history, he has been miscast as a bigot, a product of a misogynist era that produced some of the infamous fanatics from that era. But as attractive as this view is, it is very erroneous. The era was misogynist, but Eustace Chapuys was no fanatic. He often criticized the church and many of his colleagues for their blatant blindness towards their fault. Although he swore to serve the Emperor’s interests, it soon became clear that his affection towards Katherine and her daughter interfered with his master’s interests. In the late 1520s when Katherine was becoming more desperate to prevent an annulment; she and Chapuys agreed to blame the Pope for his slow action. She wrote an angry letter to the Pope in which she blamed him for her current situation, and added that if he did not threaten Henry with excommunication or declared in her favor, then Henry would do the unthinkable. Chapuys himself wrote to the Emperor as well, telling him that His Holiness was proving very ineffectual.
Although he came to hate Anne in the end, he admired her, and lamented her death. When he heard about her arrest –and the arrest of her alleged lovers- he scoffed at the charges and wrote that she, and all the men who died before her, were innocent.

“No one ever showed more courage or greater readiness to meet death than she did, having, as the report goes, begged and solicited those under whose keeping she was to hasten the execution … May God permit that this is his [Henry’s] last folly.”

He was also very fair to most of his following wives. On Katherine Howard, he emphasized on her charity, and her various petitions to the King, for mercy for Wallop, Margaret Pole and her family, and finally for Thomas Wyatt.

“The Queen took occasion and courage to beg and entreat the King for the release of Master Wyatt a prisoner of the Tower, which petition the King granted, though on rather hard conditions. The first of them being that the said Wyatt should confess the guilt for which he had been arrested; and secondly, that he was to resume conjugal relations with his wife, from whom he had been separated for upwards of fifteen years.”

On Katherine Parr, Henry’s sixth and final consort, he wrote even more favorably, pointing out her generosity, her friendship with the Princess Mary, and, as Mackay notices in her biography of Chapuys, her love for her stepchildren from her previous marriage.

“Chapuys did not consider Katherine’s lack of children to be an impediment; on the contrary he was thrilled that she had taken to her stepchildren, and could report that Mary and the new Queen got on extremely well. If Mary was happy, so too was her devoted ambassador.” (Mackay)

“The King continues to treat the Princess kindly, and has made her stay with his new Queen, who behaves affectionately towards her. As to Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the King has sent her back again to stay with the prince his son.”

She was, without a doubt, the Consort Chapuys approved the most after his first, Katherine of Aragon. Before he left England, she and Mary and her ladies surprised him, and he told her that he was grateful for everything she had done for her, and in one of his dispatches added that there was no woman worthier in England to be Queen.

“She therefore begged me affectionately, after I had presented to Your Majesty her humble service, to express explicitly to you all I had learned here of the good wishes of the King towards you; and likewise to use my best influence in favor of the maintenance and increase of the existing friendship. She asked me very minutely, and most graciously, after Your Majesty’s health and expressed great joy to learn of Your Majesty’s amelioration, adding many courteous and kind expressions.”

His last conversation with the Lady Mary was brief, and the two could not say much given his agonizing state, and that he was leaving soon.

“My conversation with the Princess was confined to my assurance of Your Majesty’s good wishes towards her, and her humble thanks for the same. In default of power to repay your Majesty in any other way, she said she was bound to pray constantly to God for Your Majesty’s health and prosperity.”

Among his many friends was the alchemist Agrippa, the radical Erasmus. Although his views towards Anne turned hostile after Katherine of Aragon’s death, he wrote favorably of her immediately family. They (Lord Wiltshire and Rochford) were the first ones to receive him on his arrival, and he watched George’s career with interest. His personal views however, have been distorted as have many historical figures during this period nowadays. He was a scholar, Humanist and someone who really came to care for Katherine and Mary, and became Mary’s steadfast supporter and friend. His contributions to his hometown and Louvain should also be noted. After he died, he was buried in the chapel of the college he had built in Louvain, leaving much of his fortune to his family and the schools he built. The chapel no longer exist, but the colleges still do and they continue to educate many young people.